M3 Founding values and mandate

[chrislatorres]

This is for discussing and coming to an agreement on the M3 Founding values and mandate for the organization.

[rzr]

May I suggest that works are licensed under copyleft ?

ie: CC-BY-SA-4.0 for contents and other FSF approved licences for Software ?

[avaer]

May I suggest that works are licensed under copyleft ?

There are many organizations that would object to those kinds of restrictions, including many of our friends and allies. In particular most commercial entities (which we want on our side) would find it hard to connect.

[rzr]

This can be subject to a vote then, as we did before for time and name.

[todrobbins]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is M3?

[ps410]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is M3?

If I remember correctly, M3 is short for Metaverse Makers Meetup (3 x Capital M).

[avaer]

It's probably not "Meetup" since we're doing more than meeting up. If that is a point of confusion then we probably shouldn't call it M3...

[chrislatorres]

Generally I think that this should be a "working group". In the context of a working group, there has to clear goals that everyone is working on:

the SMART framework for goal setting captures this well:

S.M.A.R.T., or Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-stamped

This is seemingly obvious, but I think it has to be emphasized so that the concept of Metaverse or Oasis stays grounded in practicality.

I think what needs to be done in the working group is approaching the Oasis/Metaverse as an engineering problem.. breaking down the Metaverse into obtainable sub-problems to solve.

The shape of these aren't 100% clear, but what I think so far:

• Projects are reluctant to adopt new standards. Standard xkcd comic on standards.
• The web and the immersive web standards is the best attempt for a standard platform as of now.
• The concept of a Metaverse originates from science fiction and will not translate exactly to reality.
• The end result might be less of a singular Metaverse and more of a hyperlinked multiverse of different experiences.

In general:

• be practical, problem solving oriented
• focus on compatibility over invention
• start simple and allow for emergence

---

Some notes from articles written on Metaverse

"..when it comes to actually implementing a Metaverse, why do so many people believe that the science fiction version of the Metaverse should be our blueprint?"

" Were you disheartened that a company which is known for tracking users, data mining, and advertising had purchased Oculus VR and is going to put its resources behind building the Metaverse? I can’t help you there. Did you believe that you would have to play by their rules to use The Metaverse, or not at all? You shouldn’t believe it. If we throw away one assumption, The Metaverse (as a singular entity), and replace it with a Multiverse (no longer a singular Metaverse), then things change drastically."

https://metaversing.com/2014/03/29/the-sci-fi-metaverse-is-bad-and-you-need-to-leave-it-behind/

"People thought CD-ROMs were much more important than the internet, but it wasn't true. It wasn't true because of hyperlinks. What is the hyperlink in the metaverse?"

https://youtu.be/rsMrllsaknM?t=1160

"This isn’t an unusual situation. Science fiction has also inspired us in other related areas of technological interest, such as virtual interfaces. Unfortunately, what makes for such great eye-candy on the big screen can easily fail in the real world.

Be inspired, but don’t look back.

We Have to Walk Before We Can Run —

If we are creating the Metaverse, we need to start at the beginning. Too many efforts have jumped ahead to create a matured form of what the Metaverse might be. Part of the reason these efforts may jump ahead is because they’re targeting the vision of a fully-evolved Metaverse from science fiction. Another reason is the need for a commercial implementation to quickly generate revenue to sustain itself.

This is completely avoidable. We have to target our efforts at the right point in the lifecycle of what we’re building. We shouldn’t be building Metaverse 1.0, 2.0, or version 3.0. Mispredictions are costly, over-designing is costly – we have to start our effort at Metaverse v0.1."

https://uploadvr.com/defining-the-real-world-metaverse-someone-is-finally-explaining-it/

"Here’s the problem: the Metaverse sounds good on paper, but would be horrible to actually use.

In the early days of personal computing and the Internet, people envisioned digital shopping malls and libraries. Instead of physically going to a store or a library, one could use a computer to look up information or purchase items. What would these digital libraries look like? In the 1994 movie Disclosure, actor Michael Douglas uses VR to walk around a virtual library, opening virtual file cabinets to search for some data. https://youtu.be/VFkyV7d5t8o

In hindsight, this is hilarious. A simple interface like Google is a far superior method for querying information than walking through a digital, 3D library. A digital, 3D shopping mall is a laughable idea compared to the utility of Amazon."

https://blog.bigscreenvr.com/the-virtual-reality-metaverse-is-nonsense-cfd3b3301a69

"In short, by focusing on the right thing, it isn’t hard at all to initiate a Metaverse. In fact, all things considered, it is shockingly easy. And not just “a” Metaverse but “The” Metaverse. Part of the secret is to give the community an incredibly simple core element, and to allow them to build something that is far greater than any of its individual parts. Let go. Don’t try to control everything. The tighter you try to control The Metaverse, the more you destroy its core value. Stop it!

Another part of it relies on letting go of the science-fiction definition of a Metaverse (and the Second Life defintion of a Metaverse). We have to build The Metaverse using what we already have on hand, and invent as little as possible. We can’t tell everyone that they’re wrong. We have to show them how they’re right!" "Hyperlinked experiences are the real future of VR. They will allow you to create the best possible experiences in virtual reality, blended together, without the restrictions and limitations of language and protocols and engines. You always choose the best engine and the best language and the best middleware for your own application, given the constraints of your project. Give yourself permission to build the best application of its class using the tools you want. As you find opportunities, you’ll hand off the user’s experience to others who have done the same. Or maybe you’re not a programmer, but you just want to design your experience inside of someone else’s application without fear of it being trapped inside of a limited bubble. The Metaverse can help pop those bubbles and open up your content to a larger audience."

"The Matrix inherits its name from the fact that it manages the transition between two programs (from an application perspective as well as from a user’s VR perspective) by negotiating a match in the matrix of potential transition capabilities. Depending on what features the current experience and the new experience support (if any), the Matrix negotiates an appropriate application transition and visual transition between two applications."

"That community may decide that they want an even richer experience with more features. A single identity? A shared avatar? Services that persist through multiple services? On top of the thread that connects applications, they might look to build a rich new thread that runs between and through applications. One we bring all parties to the table based on the value of hyperlinked experiences, this and so much more is possible. "

https://metaversing.com/2016/09/04/wrapping-up-a-final-call-for-metaversing/

[kfarr]

Silly question perhaps, are there problem statements and/or user stories that might help define this? The word "metaverse" seems to be overloaded, so avoiding on purpose below.

Below are silly examples, just to help calibrate my understanding and prompt others to reply.

Pain points:

• although i can meet lots of people in person, few share specific interests or crossovers of interests although many people exist that share these interests however they are geographically distributed
• in real life or virtual reality while unstructured conversations and meetups can be fun and productive, most of the time they miss out on the optimal benefit that all stakeholders could potentially receive
• as a hobbyist engaged in activity z, I have a hard time finding others to collaborate on project(s) related to z
• as a new learner to activity z, I have a hard time finding mentors or in-person learning
• i don't like gravity

User stories proposed solutions:

• As a meatspace human I would like to have a mechanism for structured virtual meetups to engage with others who share interest or values in x, y or z.
• As a meatspace human I would like a simple way to engage in activity a, b or c with geographically distributed people
• As a meatpsace creature limited by physics of planet earth I'd like to engage with other creatures in a world with physics characteristics that I can define and share with others.

[kfarr]

Suggested disambiguation of corporate speak re vision, mission, values:

• vision - the "north star", what are we aiming for? (ie walk on the moon)
• mission - what is the daily mantra that helps us get there? (ie build a rocket that works)
• values - what are the daily covenants that we work and live by? (ie we experiment using scientific method; test, test, and test; etc)

[avaer]

Thanks for the question @kfarr, I'll chime in.

For myself and others, the major pain point is a lack of collaboration in the industry -- top to bottom -- that needlessly diffuses efforts and dreaming in the pursuit of "metaversy" ideas. A lot of folks seem to be building walls and politics in an area of technology that is too immature to handle that weight. And so the metaverse is delayed.

That means:

• headset makers make their own store
• many social platforms with the same features, and lock-in
• many XR APIs and SDKs with overlapping technology
• personal projects that duplicate effort because of ego
• deadlocks and politics in the specification groups means people frustrated with progress

For a north star, I'd like to be able to:

Put on any headset, experience every piece of content, in the factor I want -- both legacy and XR.

Terms left deliberately vague.

I'd like to see the group's mission be "build enabling technologies in our niche of expertise, in order to bring us closer to the metaverse as a whole". Some corollaries include "don't do the same thing twice", "make it compatible", and "does this help me, or everyone in the group?"

My (personal contribution to the) mission is to build a glue engine that allows any API to be composited together into a VR/AR world.

I think values need to materialize organically, but some that I personally subscribe to include: "don't ask for permission to try", "show, don't talk", "listen twice as much as you speak", "don't make something only for yourself", and "contribute -- never wait for someone else to ship". These are all designed to de-ossify the pain points I listed above.

[avaer]

See also: https://github.com/M3-org/charter